Updated: Oct 25, 2023
Fill a tray with a shallow layer of flour or sand to create your moon dust. I used the lid from our phonics box and added some glitter to make it sparkly. Press the letter m into the moon dust to make a print. Tell your child this letter is called m (use the letter name) and it represents the mmm sound (try not to add 'uh' at the end e.g. muh).
Create some space missions for your child to help them to revisit some of the other letters they have learnt e.g. zoom the ssss to the moon! Then say s (letter name) has landed on the moon, ssss, ssss, ssss! You could press some of the magnetic letters into the flour to make prints and see if your child can work out which letter made them.
Create another space mission by hiding some words under the tray. You could use high-frequency cards from the Phase 2-4 Flashcards or word cards from the Phase 2 Words and Captions Flashcards.
Space Mission: Go to the moon and see if you can discover any words. Report back to the Space Centre to tell them what you find.
Get your child to move the flour/sand around until they discover a word. Can they sound it out and blend it? If they find a card on a solid coloured background, remind them that it contains a tricky part and help them to read it.
Support: Begin with VC (vowel - consonant) words if they find it tricky e.g. as, at, is, in, it, an.
Extension: Include some alien words. Alien words is a term often used for nonsense words. Your child might read these at school to help develop blending skills. Use a consonant, vowel, consonant word e.g. mip. Blend the sounds then decide if the word is a real word or not. It also helps to develop the skill of checking if what you have read sounds right and makes sense.
Space Mission: Can you make a word in the moon dust for aliens to read?
Get your child to use the magnetic letters to stamp words in the flour or you could get them to write with their finger. Encourage them to segment the words e.g. an, a-n.